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Closed‐circuit TV, infra‐red beams, plastic “key” cards…there is certainly no shortage of equipment on the market to thwart industry's law breakers. But gadgets by themselves are no guarantee of theft prevention. What companies should be looking for, says security adviser Frank Pegg, is a professional risk manager to put security operations into a wider — and more profitable — dimension.

Electronic Funds Transfer systems will, in spite of delays, be introduced in this country before very long. When the banks and the retailers can resolve their differences over the form the system should take, the growth potential should be substantial. But there will be security problems for the retailer. It is these problems which Frank Pegg discusses in this special feature.

The retail theft problem is a massive one — but, argues the writer, to attempt to fight it by total security is not the answer. Making the store into a fortress is not only expensive but quite unsuitable for modern retailing. Appropriate security is the answer, based on three requirements: information and a thorough understanding of the problem; accepting the world as it really is, and not as it ought to be; and cost‐effectiveness — security policies have to be justified by their results on retail profits. Such security may not necessarily require technology. But it has to be based on a thorough understanding of the retailer's security needs and expertise. And the retailer must face up to the distressing fact that the majority of theft is probably committed by staff.

Nobody knows with any accuracy what is stolen from retail outlets each year, nor precisely the breakdown between staff and customer theft. And what about losses at the back door? Some generalisations, however, are valid: people of all age‐groups steal food, while it is the young who are most illegally active in boutiques, and the very young in sweetshops. But how much are retailers themselves to blame, for insufficient attention to what is in essence a management function?

The nature of the negotiated outcomes of the eight issues of the Dayton Peace Agreement was studied in terms of their integrative and distributive aspects. In cases where integrative elements were found, further analysis was conducted by concentrating on Pruitt's five types of integrative solutions: expanding the pie, cost cutting, non‐specific compensation, logrolling, and bridging. The results showed that real world international negotiations can arrive at integrative agreements even when they involve redistribution of resources (in this case the redistribution of former Yugoslavia). Another conclusion was that an agreement can consist of several distributive outcomes and several integrative outcomes produced by different kinds of mechanisms. Similarly, in single issues more than one mechanism can be used simultaneously. Some distributive bargaining was needed in order to determine how much compensation was required. Finally, each integrative formula had some distributive aspects as well.

Rural schools have typically been strong on community but weak on professional learning. Their small size and geographical isolation have meant that much of the recent reform movement focused on professional learning communities has passed them by. But there is no reason why rural educators cannot participate in professional learning networks (PLNs) and benefit from heightened levels of collegiality that can be experienced across schools. However, intentional design for deeper collaborative work and face-to-face connection is necessary for PLN members to reap the benefits from increased professional capital and teacher leadership opportunities. This chapter describes the work of the Northwest Rural Innovation and Student Engagement (NW RISE) network in the United States. NW RISE brings together rural educators in gatherings that take place every six months, helps them to form “job-alike” groups focused on academic subject matter or cross-contextual themes, and provides support for shared curriculum design. This chapter describes how rural educators have seized upon the resources in NW RISE to promote student engagement and to develop their professional capacity across the network’s schools.

Recounts the origins of Birmingham University in Mason College, and the early development of its library under William Henry Cope. The growth of collections, particularly by donations from Thomas Pretious Heslop and the services based on them into the early twentieth century are discussed. The importance of the appointment of Charles Grant Robertson as Vice‐Principal is examined and the growth of the collections described, as is the further service development under Fenwick Mills and Wilfred Bonser. The continuing development of the collections and opening of a new library building in 1960 are discussed in a review of the history of the library and its services into the modern period.

COMPARISON of the amount and the variation between 1975/76 and 1976/77 of public library bookfunds is made possible by the Libtrad summary which was published in the Bookseller in mid‐April. It is encouraging to see that although there is a fair number of falls and no‐changes, many chiefs have been successful in extracting higher book‐funds from their authorities—no mean achievement in a year which has seen a pretty general standstill in rate demands. Essex is up by no less than 30%, and the percentage increases are in double figures in not a few cases. My own home borough is up by exactly one‐third, though it still only reaches the miserly total of £115,000 for a population of 200,000—well down the per capita league for London boroughs.